From the Bleachers

COLUMN BY KURT MARGGRAF IN CHICAGO

Ebb and flow. Each life experiences it. Heck, each day does. Certainly, each season, each game does. One of my favorite singers, John Prine said, “That’s the way that the world goes ‘round, You’re up one day, the next you’re down, It’s a half an inch of water and you think you’re gonna drown, That’s the way that the world goes ‘round.”

A few years ago, my daughter suggested I read a book by Fredrik Backman called A Man Called Ove. I loved it and recently I saw there were two movies based on the book. One of the movies featured Tom Hanks and they Americanized the man’s name to Otto. I really wanted to see it, so last night we went out to the theater for the first time in a while and witnessed one of the finest movies I’ve ever seen. Talk about ebb and flow, the movie goes from heartbreaking to heartwarming and back again and takes the audience along for the ride. See it if you want your heartstrings tugged. Somehow, that story led me to the NFC and AFC championship football games that were played Sunday. The first game featured the Philadelphia Eagles versus the San Francisco 49ers and in the beginning, it was an evenly fought contest. The 49ers started the game with their third string quarterback, Brock Purdy, who had played and won the previous seven games. When his elbow got injured, they had to use their fourth stringer, until he suffered a concussion.

They had run out of quarterbacks, so they had to put Purdy back in but he couldn’t throw the ball, so all they could do was run. Needless to say, the Eagles won rather easily 31-7 and are now off to the Super Bowl.

The second game featured the Kansas City Chiefs against the Cincinnati Bengals and this game wasn’t decided until the final three seconds of the game. Both team’s played great and they were very evenly matched but in the end, a 45yard field goal by kicker Harrison Butker gave the Chiefs a 23-20 victory.

I was really impressed with the Bengals coach Zac Taylor who refused to blame Joseph Ossai for his late hit that set up the winning field goal. Instead, Taylor said any one of twenty plays could have changed the outcome. That’s the kind of leadership that builds champions.

So it will be the Chiefs versus the Eagles for this years title in a couple of weeks. Then, at least locally, we can look forward to next season.

The ups and downs, ins and outs, highs and lows that make up the ebb and flow of a football season. Time to move on.

Pitchers and catchers report in a couple of weeks.

Knute Rockne said, “One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it.”

Be kind. Talk to you next week. Peace, love, and happiness.

Lack of rebounding all season long was an even bigger factor in the latest defeat suffered by the New Buffalo High School boys’ basketball team.

The Bison (1-11) gave up more than twice as many rebounds than they grabbed in a 71-38 loss at Countryside Academy Friday, Jan. 27.

The taller and more athletic Cougars pulled down 50 rebounds compared to 22 rebounds for New Buffalo, which continues to struggle from lack of size and youth.

Second and third chance buckets from offensive rebounds had a lot to do with Country Academy (7-3) leading by nine points after the first quarter and being ahead 39-10 at halftime.

The Cougars missed every one of their

19 three-point shots during the game but shot 56% from two-point range.

In comparison, the Bison hit 20% of their shots from beyond the three-point line and 33% of their two-point shots.

The Cougars took 26 more shots than the Bison because of their edge in rebounding and the Bison committing nine more turnovers.

Freshman Sam Tripp led the Bison with 10 points.

Juniors Elliot Bourne and Andres Becerra scored 15 points combined.

Freshman Nick Haskins added four points while junior Cameron Forker contributed three points.

The next home game for New Buffalo is Feb. 7 against Covert, which lost to the Bison earlier in the season.